Free
by trashlandis
Summary: Follow a group of original characters as they try to survive in a hostile world. Includes OCs and show characters. Set pre-Woodbury, rated M for mature content.
1. Chapter 1

"Get in there!" the officer said as he roughly pushed a prisoner up the steps and onto the bus. The chains at the man's feet clinked as he nearly fell to his knees, but he kept his balance and shot a glare at the guard as he ascended the steps. He was one of the last to file onto the school bus and past the chain link door that separated the driver from the prisoners. The bus smelled of sweat and gasoline, and the Georgia heat made the place feel like a sweat locker.

The guard came through and checked every prisoner's chains. One woman spit at his feet when he passed, and he tightened her handcuffs until they pressed into her wrists. Once each prisoner was accounted for, he headed to the front of the bus and locked the cage door behind him. The bus shuddered to a start and began rumbling down the road.

"Where are we goin'?" an older, tattooed man yelled from the back of the bus. The guard in the front of the bus turned around to look at him.

"Georgia State," the officer responded gruffly. He put one hand on the pistol at his belt. "Now shut up. No more questions."

The tattooed man huffed and sat back in his seat. He tapped his fingers, stared out the window at the passing landscape, and tapped his foot until another inmate snapped at him to knock it off. He flipped the person off, and then looked around at the other inmates. His eyes fell on a girl sitting a couple of seats to the left of him. She had black hair pulled back behind her head, tanned skin, and a scowl that looked like she could kill with just one look. She was chained between two inmates- an older man with a beer gut and tattoos all down his right arm, and an older woman with short, spiky gray hair. She just stared silently out the window of the bus.

The school bus full of prisoners rumbled onto the highway, picking up speed as the driver merged it into the steady line of cars coming from behind them. None of the prisoners on the bus seemed to catch onto the fact that most of the cars had stuff piled inside and on top of them, as if all the drivers were going on long vacations.

The tattooed man leaned forward around the front of his seat to the man sitting there. This man was pale-skinned with carrot-red hair cropped short above his ears and a scar that ran from his temple down to his jawline. He was staring directly at the seat in front of him with his hands clenched in his lap.

"Hey, Scarface," the tattooed man said. "What'd you do to land yourself in here?"

The scarred man didn't answer, only turned around and glared at the man. The tattooed man forced a chuckle.

"Name's Martin," he introduced himself. "Armed robbery and homicide. I ain't ashamed of my past. So how 'bout you? What's your name?"

The scarred man sighed. "Ben," he responded in an annoyed voice. "And it's none of your business."

"Oh, come on, we have to talk about something. It's too boring to just sit here in silence," Martin whined.

"Everyone was fine with the quiet until you opened your mouth," Ben responded calmly.

"Well, I'm bored as all hell," Martin said, leaning back against his seat. His handcuffs clinked as he moved. "There's gotta be something else to do on here. Anyone got a cigarette?" He announced this last question loudly, and most of the prisoners on the bus turned around to see who was interrupting the relative silence. Someone yelled at him to shut up, but he looked around.

"Come on, let's do something!" he said loudly with a laugh. "Let's have some fun before-"

"Shut up!" the young girl from the back of the bus snapped at him.

"She's right," the guard from the front said as he turned towards the back. There was a glare on his face as he placed his hand on his pistol and met Martin's eyes. "No one gives a shit. Mind your own damn business."

Martin leaned back in his seat, scowling at the guard. Time seemed to pass endlessly as the prison bus drove further and further towards Georgia State. It felt like they had been driving for days when all of a sudden, the bus came to a halting stop on the highway. The tires screeched, and the prisoners were flung forward into the seats in front of them. The two guards in the front fell and scrambled to get back up as the prisoners began shouting.

"What's going on?" Martin yelled over the chatter, swiveling his head around to look out the windows. The cars all around them were stopped as well. Some were trying to turn around and drive the other way, but they were only met with more stopped cars and nowhere to go. The guards at the front of the bus were staring out the windshield at something the prisoners couldn't see.

"I'll go," one of the guards said to the other. Drawing his gun, he stepped out of the bus door as the driver cracked it open. The prisoners craned their necks to watch. The guard crept slowly down the street as people ran past him down the other direction, away from the city. Once he was out of sight, the bus went silent. They heard three gunshots, then silence. All of them waited for what seemed like hours.

The guard didn't come back.

"Alright," the second guard said. He was sweating and seemed very nervous as he drew his pistol. "I'm going out there."

"You're just gonna leave us here?" The older woman sitting in the back spoke up. "You can't just leave! You're the only one with a weapon!"

"You think I'm just gonna leave my partner out there?" He snapped back at her. "You'll be fine. I'll be right back." He turned to the driver. "Open the door man, I'm going out."

The driver pushed the lever and opened the door. But before the guard could take one step down the stairs, he dropped to the ground screaming. He fired one shot, but it missed and went out the open door. He flipped over, dropping his pistol by the driver's feet, and screamed as he was dragged backwards out of the bus. They heard screaming continue for a few seconds before he went silent. The driver was watching what the prisoners couldn't see in absolute horror. All of a sudden, the driver began screaming as well and tried to shut the door. When he realized he couldn't, he scrambled to pick up the guard's pistol but dropped it as he tried to back away.

Something was climbing the stairs of the bus. The prisoners all tried to stand to see what was going on. Finally, it came into view, and four people screamed in horror.

The thing was hideous. With rotting flesh, bloodstained clothes, and dead, bloodshot eyes, it snarled at the driver before leaning down and biting a chunk out of his arm. Blood spurted all over the windshield as the driver screamed. Most of the prisoners ducked down behind their seats. One burly man began crying and praying as the driver was eaten alive. He thrashed around, but once the thing took a chunk out of his neck, he began gurgling as he choked on his own blood. A few seconds later, he went still. The thing continued to eat him.

"Look," the girl from the back said quietly, though somehow all the prisoners were able to hear her. She pointed to the front of the bus, past the cage door. The master keys for the prisoners' handcuffs had fallen off the second guard's belt and had been kicked towards the cage door by the thrashing driver. Ben saw this as well, and sitting close to the front, he immediately got down on the ground and began trying to reach the handcuffs. He strained as much as he could, but the keys were just too far away. He grunted with effort, and the thing that was eating the driver's body turned to him.

He pulled his hands back through the cage door just before the thing reached him. It snarled and pushed on the cage door, but it was locked. Five people screamed and ducked. The girl from the back began trying to pull her hands out of the handcuffs.

"Wait, look!" Martin said to Ben, pointing at the thing's feet. Its' foot was behind the set of keys. The idea seemed to click in Ben's head, and he began clacking his chains so they made noise. The thing tried to get closer, stepping up as close as it could to the cage- and dragging the keys with it. As quick as he could, Ben snatched the keys and pulled them back into the bus before the thing could reach him. He unlocked his handcuffs, then gripped the keys like a weapon and shoved them through the cage into the thing's head. It snarled, then froze and dropped like a sack to the ground. He pulled the keys back through the cage and unlocked the door, then tossed the ring back to the girl. While she unlocked her handcuffs, he went to the front and shoved both the bodies of the thing and the driver out onto the street, then closed the bus door. The keys were getting passed around prisoner to prisoner.

The girl from the back of the bus had made her way to the front. Searching around in the various storage spaces, she pulled out and unfolded a map. Ben picked up the guard's pistol, unloaded it, counted the bullets left, and reloaded the pistol.

"Who are you?" Ben asked her as he peered out the windshield. He was trying to ignore the panicked chatter in the bus as the prisoners unlocked themselves.

"Mari," she responded as she leaned the unfolded map on the wheel to read it. "Those things are coming from inside the city. Which means we need to go the other way. The longer we stay on the highway, the more chance there is that we'll see more of those things."

Ben peered at the map over her shoulder. "There," he said, pointing to an exit leading off of the highway a few miles back the way they came. "That's the first exit off."

"We can't get this bus through this traffic. We'll need to go on foot until we reach the end of the car pileup, then find some cars and take those out." She folded up the map and tucked it into the back of her khaki pants that all the prisoners wore. "And while we do, we can scavenge for weapons. One pistol and four bullets might not cut it."

Ben stood and opened the cage door. "Everyone shut up!" he shouted over the chatter. The rest of the prisoners stopped talking and turned to face the front. He put the pistol in the back of his pants like Mari had done with the map.

"What are those things?" a tall man near the middle of the bus spoke up. "I ain't gonna get eaten, man!"

"Again, shut up," Ben said to him. "We're getting off the bus. We can't go into the city, so we're going to go on foot until we can get some cars and get off the highway. It's our best bet. And we need to do it quietly. I think those things are attracted to sound."

"Twenty of us, and you think we're gonna be quiet?" the same man asked again. "Man, you're crazy."

"You keep talking, and you're gonna be the first one they get," he snapped back. "Now while we're going, scavenge for weapons. We only have one pistol."

"And this," Mari said. She pulled a pocketknife out of one of the drawers at the front of the bus and flicked it open, then closed it. "You cover the front, I'll pick up the end with the knife."

"That works. Now let's get going." He turned and scanned the streets from the windshield, then pulled the lever that opened the door. The prisoners began filing out one by one, and Mari took up the rear of the group with the pocketknife out and ready. They picked silently around empty cars, and narrowly avoided people being eaten alive. After a few minutes, Mari heard a snarl behind her, and she turned around and stabbed the thing in the heart. It didn't react, so she pulled the knife out and shoved it away, then stabbed it in the middle of the head. It went still, and she pushed it down on top of the hood of a car.

Another one of the things emerged from between two cars up in the middle of their line. It tackled a woman to the ground and began biting into her shoulder, and she screamed and tried to shove it away, but to no avail. It bit into her neck and she began choking on her own blood. The silence of the group broke, and people began running away from the slaughter happening two feet away. The noise began attracting more of them, and one by one, prisoners began getting tackled to the ground. Gunshots echoed from the front of the group, and they all began running.

"Here!" Ben shouted to those that were left. He opened the door of a car and got in the driver's seat. People took the other three seats. Mari found a pickup truck and hopped in the driver's seat. Martin got in the passenger's seat next to her and she found the keys and started up the truck. She turned around to see if anyone was trying to get in the back. The man that had spoken up when Ben was explaining the plan was climbing up, and he tried to help another man in. The second man got pulled back by one of the things, and he slammed the back of the pickup truck bed and knocked on the glass separating him from the inside. Mari slammed the gas pedal and they sped forward in pursuit of Ben's car.

"Seven people," she said, exasperated. "Seven people out of twenty got out of that."

"At least there are some of us left," Martin responded. "Where are we going?"

"Take the map." Mari leaned forward so he could reach the map that was stuck in the waistline of her pants. A smirk crossed Martin's face, and he grabbed the map, "accidentally" letting his fingers brush her skin. She rolled her eyes and leaned back in the seat.

"We're taking the first exit off the highway. If we lose sight of Ben's car, follow the map," she instructed. A knock came from the back, and Martin turned around to look at the man in the back. He grinned and held up a shotgun and some shells, then gave a thumbs up. Martin returned the gesture and turned back to the front.

"Do you really think we'll make it out of here alive?" he asked Mari. She glanced over at him, then turned her eyes back to the road.

"I have no idea," she answered. "We'll get as far as we can."

"At least we're not in prison anymore," he said with a nervous chuckle. "We're free."

They saw one of the things walking along the side of the road. It stopped at some roadkill and began digging into it, and Mari looked away, taking a deep breath.

"How free are we, really?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Ten minutes after driving off of the highway, the two cars holding the escaped prisoners pulled over onto the side of the road. The exit had been swarmed with the dead, but they had just plowed through. Ben's car was covered in blood and guts.

The seven of them exited the cars and met in a circle on the side of the road. Mari was tucking the map into the back of her waistband once again, and Ben was surveying the group.

"Alright," the redhead said gruffly. "If we're going to continue from here, we need to find somewhere to stay. Preferably away from the police."

"There are some houses down the road," Mari spoke up. "I saw them on the map. But before we do anything else, I think we need to all know who we are. Names, what you did before prison."

"What you did to get _into_ prison," the man who had been riding in the back of the pickup added. "I guess I'll start. My name's Anthony Thomas. You can call me Tony. Before I got arrested, I worked construction in Columbus. Arrested for embezzlement from my company."

"And that was enough to send you to maximum security?" the older woman in the group spoke up. Tony shrugged with a smirk on his face.

"Punched three cops in minimum. They decided I was too much trouble."

A low chuckle rumbled through their group. They all understood the urge to punch an officer. Tony looked around the circle, waiting for the next volunteer. The older woman with short, spiky gray hair glanced around, then sighed.

"I'm not comfortable with this," she complained. "None of you need to know anything about me more than my name."

"Then you can go and find your own way to survive," Tony responded with his arms crossed. "We all need to know who we're dealing with if we're going to survive together. If you don't want to participate with the other kids, you can get out of here and live on your own."

The woman glared daggers at him, looking like she wanted to kill him right then and there. But she sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Sue," she said bluntly. "I was a manager at McDonald's."

"Why were you in prison?" Martin asked.

"Grew weed in some flower pots up in my apartment." She crossed her arms, glancing around at the lot of them. "Then I kept growing weed in prison. Took the guards four months to find out, but it was a good four months."

The group chuckled again and turned to Martin.

"Martin Beecher," he said in a gruff voice. "Manslaughter."

The group went quiet. Everyone glanced at those around them, and then they continued to look at Martin while he kept talking.

"I was in a biker gang before. Got in an accident a couple months ago. I turned out okay, couple broken bones, but I had someone on the back, and they died in the accident. Court ruled that I was at fault, charged me with manslaughter."

Next in line was another man from Ben's car. He had short black hair and pale skin, and frown lines were etched across his face.

"Jake Cunningham," he said. "Used to be a cop. Arrested for attempted murder."

The group glanced around at the others in the circly. Martin cleared his throat.

"Do you want to elaborate on that at all?" he asked. Jake curtly shook his head.

"Moving on, then," Mari said, gesturing to the next woman in the circle. This woman was tall, muscular, and looked like she could kill a man in seven different ways. The woman smirked to herself.

"Karah Hendrix," she said. "I used to be a real estate agent. I got arrested for armed robbery. It took the police half an hour to actually get into the bank. I was pretty impressed with myself to be honest."

The group looked to Mari to explain her story. She glanced around the circle, and then crossed her arms.

"Mariana Ramirez," she said. "You can call me Mari. I worked at Subway."

"What'd you do?" Tony asked her. She looked at the blacktop pavement under her feet and kicked a fallen leaf away.

"Got accused of selling drugs," she answered. "A lot of drugs."

"How much is a lot?" Sue questioned. Mari shot her a glare, but decided reluctantly to answer her.

"Fifteen bags of heroin, and twenty bags of cocaine."

"That's… a lot of drugs," Martin said in awe. "How did you _get_ that much?"

"You know, it really doesn't matter, Martin," Mari snapped. "Moving on." She gestured to Ben, who was standing next to her in the circle. He shifted on his feet, then looked around at everyone in the circle. His expression was vague, almost distant.

"Ben Lock," he said gruffly. "Three counts of first degree murder."

"Lock?" Jake queried, crossing his arms. "I've heard of you. You're the guy that got accused of-"

"Shut up," Ben snapped gruffly to Jake. "What I did to land myself in prison is no one's business except for my own."

A couple of people in the group shifted uncomfortably. Mari cleared her throat, then stepped forward. "Did anyone find weapons on the highway?" she asked. Tony held up the shotgun he had found in the back of the pickup. Sue brandished a pocketknife, and Karah showed them a pistol and two boxes of ammunition.

"We'll consolidate those when we find somewhere to hold up," Ben said. "Let's just get going. Mari, switch cars and come with me. You've got the map."

Everyone dispersed to the two cars parked on the side of the road. Mari nodded to Martin and Tony and then followed Ben to the smaller blue car in the front. She slid into the passenger seat as Ben got into the driver's seat and started the vehicle. Karah and Jake hurried into the back, leaving Sue to stomp to the pickup truck and force Tony to get back in the bed so she could sit in the passenger seat. As they rumbled off the side of the road, Ben tried to tune the radio to see if they could pick up anything. Mari unfolded the map just as they picked up an emergency signal.

" _This is an emergency broadcast for the state of Georgia,"_ a generic male voice said over the radio. " _This is not a drill. Individuals have come down with a cannibalistic disease. Find shelter immediately. Do not provoke the ill. Stay in your homes. This is an emergency broadcast…"_ The message repeated itself twice more before Mari punched the radio button to turn it off.

A few more miles passed by in a blur. In the back of the car, Karah tapped her fingers on her leg and Jake stared at his feet on the floor. Mari had been looking between the map and the road the entire time while not saying a word.

"Can we get off of this road?" Ben said as he tried to shield his eyes with one hand. The sun was beginning to set, and it was shining directly into his eyes. Mari held the map up to block the light from her vision as well, and then nodded.

"Take the next right," she instructed. "It'll take us up north some. Get us further from the city."

Karah leaned forward between the two front seats, craning to get a look at the map. "Are we going to pass through Roswell?" She asked.

"We can," Mari replied. "Why?"

"That's where I'm from," Karah replied. "I want to check on my family. And there are a few stores around my neighborhood, we can gather supplies." The woman looked to Ben for a decision. He was stone-faced for a moment before nodding.

"Sounds like our best bet for right now," he said. Karah grinned and leaned back against her seat, staring out the window as the foliage passed them by in a green blur. Ben took the next right, and they began heading toward Roswell.

It was slow going. They kept stopping whenever they saw a store, raiding it for whatever supplies they figured they could use. What should have been a 45-minute drive took them three hours, and by the time they got to Roswell, the moon was rising and it was pitch-black outside. They parked in front of a hardware store, and Karah was the first to step out of the car.

"My place is just down that street," she said, craning her neck to see if there was anything down that way. The whole place was quiet, and there were lights only in a couple of windows. It was as if the whole town itself was dying.

"Sue, Martin, go with Karah. See what you can find. Look for places to stay, more stores, gas, anything. Cover each other. Mari, Jake, Tony, let's start going through these stores." Ben's orders were swift and followed quickly as the group of seven split up.

Ben led the way into the first store. Mari, Jake, and Tony covered him on the sides and the back. The lights were all out inside, so they picked their way through shelves of food in the dark. Once the door was closed behind them, they split up to cover more of the store quicker. Mari found a duffel bag and began filling it with water bottles and canned food.

All of a sudden, they heard a yelp and a crash. Adrenaline surging through her, Mari turned and ran towards the direction the sound had come from. Tony was on the ground in the middle of an aisle, staring at a dark form on the ground. It took Mari a second to realize it was a body.

"I just tripped," Tony explained shakily as Ben and Jake ran up. "I didn't see him there."

"Be more careful," Jake snapped to Tony. Ben rolled his eyes as the man got to his feet and he walked back further into the store to continue scavenging.

Ben shoved can after can of food into his backpack. If they were going to survive for the long term, they'd need non-perishables. He didn't particularly care if no one in the group liked canned ham- they'd eat it if they wanted to survive.

"Yo, Ben," Tony called from a few aisles over. Ben huffed and headed over to see what Tony wanted. When he got there, Tony was holding up two identical machetes, still in plastic packaging.

"I can't believe they sell these next to the family planning aisle," he remarked, handing one to Ben handle-forward. "You'd think they'd at least lock them up or something."

"Can't believe you were ever in prison," Ben said back to him as he examined the machete and began ripping off the plastic packaging. "You don't think like one."

"I didn't know there was a specific mindset all prisoners have to have," Tony said back as he tore the plastic from his own machete. "I'll work on that."

Ben was about to respond when they heard a shout from outside. Mari was the first to shove the door open. They saw Sue and Karah supporting Martin between them. Martin was bleeding from his lower arm. Blood dripped onto Karah and Sue's clothing as they carried him to the store. Tears and blood ran down Karah's face.

"What happened?" Mari shouted as the other four reached them. Tony quickly shushed both her and Martin, who was moaning in pain as Sue and Karah laid him on the pavement.

"We were in my house," Karah explained, her voice rushed and panicked. "I was calling for them- for my husband and my daughter- and Martin went to check in my daughter's room-"

"She was there," Sue broke in. "But she wasn't exactly alive. She was one of them. She got him on the arm before he could do anything. I took her out. The husband was already gone."

"André," Karah said with a sob. "His name was André. And hers was Nia."

"Back up," Ben ordered. Everyone except Martin stood. "Tony, go get some rope. I saw some in aisle 12. _Hurry!_ "

Tony bolted back into the store. Mari had an arm around Karah's shoulder comfortingly as she looked at Ben.

"You're not going to-" she started, but Ben interrupted her with a sharp glance.

"Shut up," he snapped. "You're going to make him panic more." Tony ran out and handed Ben a length of rope, which Ben tied around Martin's shoulder.

"Close your eyes," he said to Martin, who was beginning to panic.

"No, man, don't cut it off! I need my arm! Don't take it off-" he stopped with a loud scream as Ben brought down the machete on his arm with such force that it took Martin's arm off in one cut.

"Shut him up!" he yelled as he knelt to tighten the rope in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Sue shoved her hand over Martin's mouth to muffle his screams, and Jake ran into the store. A few feet away, Tony bent over and vomited. Mari turned Karah away from the scene.

"We need to get inside," Ben said quickly. "His screaming probably attracted the biters."

"That's what you're calling them?" Tony said hoarsely as he wiped his mouth of vomit. "Biters?"

"Sounds better than zombies," Ben replied. Jake ran back out to them, carting a first aid kit. Ben took it from him and unzipped it, then used some clean bandages to wrap up Martin's stub. When he was done, he looked to Sue and Karah.

"Did you find anywhere for us to stay for the night?" he asked. Sue nodded, taking her hand from Martin's mouth and wiping the spit on her jeans.

"There're a couple empty houses we already cleared," she answered. "Down the street."

"We'll come back in the morning," he said. "Let's get Martin inside. Tony, watch Karah. Mari, Jake, cover my back. Sue, help me carry him."

They hoisted Martin up and began carrying him down the street. They saw the occasional biter, but Mari took both of them out before they could get too close. They didn't go to Karah's house- when Sue mentioned it, Karah burst into a fresh round of sobs- so they went to a large house nearby. They hauled Martin into a bedroom and onto the bed, but by that time, he had passed out.

"I'm gonna see if the shower works," Sue grumbled as she closed herself in the bathroom. Ben headed back down the stairs to see the others returning from clearing the house.

"No biters," Mari reported. "Front door, back door, and garage are all locked, curtains are all pulled. How's Martin?"

"As good as you'd expect," Ben replied as he sat at the kitchen table. "I'll take first watch. Get some sleep."

"Ben." Mari sat down across from him at the table. He looked up at her with an annoyed look on his face. She folded her hands in front of her.

"What?" he snapped. Mari glared at him, but didn't say anything about it.

"What's our plan?" she asked. "Are we sticking together? Or is this just temporary?"

"We're sticking together as long as we can," he replied, leaning back in the chair. "We're going to need numbers. That's how we'll survive."

She nodded, then stood and went to the refrigerator. Rummaging through, she pulled out two beers and opened both of them on the countertop. As she sat, she slid one across the table to him.

"I told you to sleep," Ben said to her, catching the beer in one hand.

"I'd rather stay up," she replied. "If you want to sleep, go ahead. But I'm staying up." She took a sip of the beer and looked around the darkened house.

"Are you even old enough to drink that?" Ben asked, gesturing to her beer as he took a sip of his own. Mari rolled her eyes.

"I've been 21 for four months, dipshit," she replied. "Are you staying up or not?"

Ben sighed, holding his beer and looking at it, then raising it to his lips to drink again. When he set it down, he looked at Karah, who was curled up on the couch with her eyes wide open as Tony sat down next to her.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll stay up too."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


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